As a full time Liberator Pilot

I'm in a magrider. I'm not allowed to fight back.

SOE hasn't even acknowledged the concept of loadout switching on the roadmap, so I'm against further specialization. To make it fair, I'd even give buffs to tanks- remove resistance buffs against AP guns. Buff HEAT gun hit-damage to the damage AP guns have now (drop/speed are kept the same though) buff AP splash. HEAT is fine where it's at. Buff the speed of enforcer/saron (enforcer more than saron), blast of enforcer, direct hit buff to saron (based on coming turret stabalization/reverse buffs) and dropoff/spread of the TR faction specific AV weapon (blanking on its name).

sound change is fine, TB could maybe use some nerfs if vector/spur are buffed.

I actually agree, Magirder's forward gun can move about 2 centimeters and to actually fight toe to toe against and enemy MBT, you need to Saron.

They kind of do. I'm a mediocre pilot, and a solo lib is free certs to me, even (especially) when I'm equipped with rocketpods. They're a bit too tanky for my taste, because they can drive me into friendly flak nests/esfs too quickly, but i don't have a problem fighting the libs themselves.

Honestly I don't mind aircraft having high burst, but they need much less sustain.

In Project Reality, aircraft die in one hit to any AA missile (which can lock out to render distance) and they basically only carry enough ammo for one strike before they have to RTB and rearm. To a PS2 lib or ESF pilot I'm sure this sounds absolutely horrifying, but aircraft are still incredibly powerful in PR in the hands of a pilot who knows what he's doing.

This because in PR:

1: Flares are standard on all aircraft
2: Aircraft can cross the map in seconds
3: Aircraft do so much damage in that one strike that their target and most things near their target WILL die unless they miss horribly.
4: Laser designators from ground troops can both highlight priority targets and guide bombs/missiles onto them.

Now you're probably wondering, "But how can skygods possibly hover over the battlefield raining non-stop death on the peasants with such a system?!"

They don't. What PR aircraft do is they hang out behind the lines, and wait for people to call out targets. They then do their best to get in, destroy the target, get out, and rearm for the next mission. They're actually putting the mobility that being in the air provides to good use, instead of trying to pretend they're a Baneblade with wings.

So now infantry are truly depicted as angry farmers, equipped with a some rifle, that deserve to die in droves, powerless against ONE farming air chariot.

Thank you for your false enlightenment.

Those noob Talibans should have certed in a lock-on launcher ! Brought flak turrets! Where's their skyguardSSS?
But wait, in reality, there's not always a need for a lock-on, just a basic RL has enough speed to hit a clumsy and unprepared helicopter. Also, why don't you post a video of how FLAK actually WORKS irl?

I'm sure they are just deterrent eh ?

I wish Libs were that slow and our RL faster. Would give a chance to dumb fires to do something else than a lucky shot.

We should call every weapon fabricators to nerf SAM sites and other anti overly efficient air countermeasures. The poor pilot of our times...

I would ******* love play this way in PS2. This is basically what I try do today, even failing a lot because there's not enough room to this kind of gameplay. Say thanks to the 3rd person view and the all around space ships which we have.

also

get a chocolate with chocolate chunks cookie. +1

I'm in favour of making everything specialized in spite of not being able to change them.
Sure, being able to swap is nice, but at least now what you pull has meaning, and that's a lot better than having a plethora of all-round loadouts to chose from.

I'm also still waiting for pilots to tell me why air needs it's greater firepower (relative to ground vehicles).
I've seen risk-reward quoted many times, but to be honest, the reward at this point is too damn high.

Just remember, ever since the nerf to Lock on launchers forcing them to follow the nose and vector of travel of aircraft instead of avoiding terrain, it has been exponentially harder to actually land shots onto a liberator, ESF, even galaxies without having to plan your shot accordingly. The terrain and close by objects and buildings prevent many of the angled shots that were able to be taken a few patches ago. This change may be perceived to make missiles able to be dodged, but the unintended side effect of reducing the timeframes for launch, angles of launch, vectors of launch, as well as the capabilities of launchers vs. targets abusing the hell out of this mechanic is something that is ignored on a large scale.

Understand that when you had a working deterrent/damaging weapon and that its ability to do its role are reduced, the scale of reduction and the work-ability of the actual mechanic of the weapon will impact overall effectiveness of the target it is meant to attack. The changes to ground based lock-on launchers was not warranted or poorly implemented, that is my two cents.

IMHO, lock on launchers should retain old launcher status with tracking and terrain avoidance during the first few hundred (100-300) meters out, and obtain current tracking methods at that set distance as if it was just launched from the ground as of now. This would alleviate issues with limited angles of fire and missiles grounding into walls and the ground, as well as getting rid of the mentality that ground locks are crap weapon systems against aircraft.

Edit: This change as well as the Fire suppression buff to ESFs have caused nearly all ESFs who were running flares to now run Fire suppression. Fire suppression as of now can have nearly the same effect as flares in short engagements when hit by non-focused lock-ons at varying intervals. Although not as preventative, the need for ground based lock resistance is greatly reduced at this time unless you are ground pounding.

That "you cannot approach a base with more than 4 people manning AA" is based on one aircraft though.

Yeah, one aircraft vs 4 dedicated AA units (though really the Skyguards do all the work, lockons are nigh-useless against libs), what do you think will happen?

But how well do you think two lockons and two Skyguards handle two libs at the same time?

From a tanker's perspective, a lone tank can't go anywhere near any battle where even one single MANA AV is present. Which by the way is much harder to return fire on than a Skyguard and doesn't cost resources. We're just expected to bring more tanks, so how about you just bring more Libs instead of trying to dominate 48+ people with a single aircraft?

I understand your point of view, but 5 seconds is enough time to get off a full salve for the zephyr, reload , and fire off another half salvo, which is then emptied as you fly away.

In those 5 seconds we've killed at least 15 of those ground troops, which were trying to push back to their point, and we'll be back to repeat the process in 10... you speak asthough a Lib pilot would go into a large battle alone, but most large battls I've seen have 3 or 4 libs come in to rain hell from the sky. That's just 3 or 4, but it's more than enough to drown out any amount of AA the defending force tries to put up, without leaving themselves completly and utterly routed (not that they weren't already, when you flew in), a process which will repeat until the ennemy pulls counter libs, or a **** ton of counter ESFs (because a good portion of them will be shot down by your AA).

That shouldn't be the only viable counter to just 6 or 8 people when, as you stated, there are 48+ people on the ground.

Because the flak to air ratio is imbalanced. And hitting an AV turret with a tank is pretty easy especially after its nerf. Its not like the av turret blinds you, but rather its a nice shiny light showing the turrets location. Skyguards blind libs, and if they are in a big group, no way you can take it out. Even if 10 libs(20 people) tried to come in and do damage, they would still get destroyed by the sheer amount of flak. Try it, I have.

You seem to forget that tanks are getting blanket nerfs to their main guns.

I haven't seen 10 libs try to join a single fight yet, but what I have seen is ~3-4 Libs descend on a heavily contested Amp Station and annihilate all the flak turrets before we could shoot them down. If 3-4 Libs can smash through AA so easily, I highly doubt 10 libs would ever find a fight that is difficult for them.

Besides, 10 MBTs is 20 people too, and that's pretty much the minimum size for an armor column that wants to actually make a difference in a 48+ fight instead of just popping a couple infantry and proceeding to get gibbed by the hundreds of AT weapons that literally every single person and vehicle has.

I note you recall one instance.
By that logic might I recommend a flash nerf off of my one epic rampage?

And yes, ten libs have enormous trouble with any battle that has more than four coordinated flak units. Especially well used guards. What coordinated libs can do is kill single emerging flak threats. Good flak takes coordination.

Meanwhile, if I'm on the ground and I have only myself, (or myself and a partner), I can pull a basalisk tank and go to any fight with a reasonable survival rate. Max it out, we're golden approaching any fight. We can use cover, only feel threatened within a few hundred meters, retreat when we get hit a few times.

But air doesn't have that option. A 48+ is virtually closed, a lib needs to be certed to be competitive, and both its pilot and gunner need to be aces or the roaming esf gank squads will tear then apart. Flak as well.

I'm not saying I don't agree with some of the reversions, I like the dumbfire and tank shell reversions.

But it's not like the libs have it easy either. All of the complaints are from groundpounders who see just that one glorious moment when there's no flak or esfs, and the lib can do what it was intended for. It's about as rare as a good time for a HE-marauder lockdown prowler.

90%+ of the time, libs are engaging or fleeing from esfs, meep meeping away from nope zones, or just trying not to die.

Not complaining, that's just how it is. If libs had it easy, everyone would be using them as a main vehicle, like pre-nerf Zoe or harasser. But what we see is a very few good lib crews per server. So few we recognize each other, and its a noticeable and traumatic experience when crews part ways.

So think before you say how libs are like the middle finger of god, because in this one battle lib x did y.

Well I've still seen zero battles where just four Skyguards single-handedly took down 10 libs at the same time. Especially considering that mathematically, in order to do that those Skyguards would have to go through 5 magazines each.

That's 350 shots per Skyguard, fired over the course of 43.75 seconds, plus 12 seconds of reloading. And that's with a 100% hit rate, which I assure you no Skyguard ever gets on a remotely competent lib, and assuming they instantly snap between targets. This is before considering composite armor and fire suppression.

Are you trying to tell me that ten Liberators would need more than a full minute to kill four Lightnings? It seems to me that you are severely underestimating how much work us groundpounders put into killing you. Even with an aimbot your scenario doesn't pan out unless you're talking about the same crew chain-pulling 10 liberators in a row. In which case we're back to "why are you expecting to dominate 48+ fights with a single aircraft?"

I also find it amusing that you think busting in to a 48+ fight with just a couple aircraft (or, as most of your arguments seem to imply, just one), wiping out an entire Amp Station worth of AA, and proceeding to free-farm absolutely everything is "what the Lib is intended for".

Yeah, right. You can pull a basilisk MBT and be completely ineffective at whatever you're trying to do. You're dead meat against any semi-competent MBT and you're not going to kill infantry well at all either.

no, you're misrepresenting me. Again.

The four guards just need to focus fire and the libs melt. Waiting until one gets into the killzone rather than opening at extreme range. Then relocate. Then a lib dies too fast for it to respond. Rinse and repeat. Within a short time, they're gone or dead.

Its not like we just automatically know where guards are.

Again, you're saying just one instance where a group of highly coordinated libs approached an amp station that apparently had no existing flak, killed the turrets, and bombarded the ground.

So libs aren't meant to shoot ground targets?

Also, as you intentionally misread, you'll note I said that a single lib cannot engage a 48+.

Go back and write a response when you've read what I said.